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The Sigurd system was located near the Butte Hold and Oberon VI systems[3][4] and consists of a class F4 primary orbited by at least one planet, a gas giant named Odin. Odin has at least one habitable moon.[5]

Sigurd was originally part of the Rim Worlds Republic until the nation's downfall that accompanied the end of the Star League. Unlike many of the former Republic systems the world was not absorbed by the Lyran Commonwealth but instead founded the Oberon Confederation with the neighboring worlds of Oberon VI and Crellacor. Together this little alliance hold on to the Republic cause for at least two decades, but finally succumbed to the numerous pirate attacks.[14]

In the late 29th or early 30th century (in the days of his great-grandfather, in the words of a Sigurd native as of 2972) Sigurd used to trade with the JàrnFòlk, specifically Lars Heyerdahl and his son Liam, but for reasons unknown the contact was lost.[5]

By 2972 Sigurd was still part of the Oberon Confederation in name, but in reality the Sigurders paid hardly any attention to their supposed vassal status, meeting their supposed rulers only twice per year for trading exchanges. Sigurd had to import fertilizer, soil and almost all raw materials for their limited manufacturing, exporting valuable heavy metals. The local population - perhaps two thousand souls, incuding a number of African descend - lived in caves in the ice, and used to extract valuable ores from meteor impact sites by tunneling through the ice instead of digging out the ores which would have required moving substantially more ice, and would not have been economically feasible. Other methods such as lasers were not feasible because raising temperature was to be avoided, and because of the dangers of cracks in the ice mantle.[5]

In 2972 JàrnFòlk trader Bjørn Jespersen and his son Olaf found that one Alma had recently invented a simple ore extractor that separated the ore from the dross with little energy. The keen traders determined this device was at the same time a water purification system - purified water being considered dross on Sigurd - and they established a lucrative trade between Sigurd and Botany Bay in which the latter would receive much sought-after water purification devices in exchange for their obsidian sand which was, as it turned out, a curse on Botany Bay but a valuable industrial asset for ice mining on Sigurd.[5]

In ca. 3013 the government used military force against dissidents on Sigurd to reassert Oberon Confederation control of the moon; future Gray Death LegionMechWarriorLori Kalmar was orphaned when her parents were killed in that government action.[37]

In 3083 the Ferris Rebellion caused the Clans to withdraw from most of their Periphery holdings. The Hell's Horses had used Oberon IV as an administrative world, and when the Clan left the area in 3086, the administrators of that world formed the New Oberon Confederation. Sigurd was one of five systems to join the new polity.[34]

Sigurd is the cold moon of a glowing gas giant, described as a striped sphere that fills a third of the sky.[5] Only a small crescent is lit by the far, bright sun which was described as an arclight in the deep blue sky while the rest of the gas giant glowed in a sullen red,[5] suggesting it is in fact a Brown Dwarf.

The surface of Sigurd is completely made up of an ice mantle several hundred meters thick, with liquid water below; it is unknown if there is anything but water in the core, or if there is perhaps a core of rock a hundred kilometers below the surface.[5] A year on Sigurd is the equivalent of 1.7 Terran years.[37]